Conventionally, as a cleaning device for cleaning a hair clipping unit of a hair removing apparatus (e.g., an electric shaver, an epilator, etc.), there is known a device having a cleaning basin for accommodating the hair clipping unit therein; a cleaning fluid circulating mechanism for supplying or recovering cleaning fluid into or from the cleaning basin; a drying mechanism for drying the hair clipping unit after the hair clipping unit is cleaned; and a control unit for controlling the cleaning fluid circulating mechanism and the drying mechanism (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. 2004-261208).
In the above conventional cleaning device, when a hair removing apparatus is placed on the cleaning device, the control unit of the cleaning device is electrically connected to a control circuit inside the hair removing apparatus. While the hair clipping unit of the hair removing apparatus is being cleaned in the cleaning basin, the control unit of the cleaning device transmits a control signal to the control circuit of the hair removing apparatus, and in response to the control signal, the control circuit of the hair removing apparatus drives the hair clipping unit. By driving the hair clipping unit during the cleaning of the hair removing apparatus in the cleaning basin, the hair clipping unit can be cleaned efficiently.
When the cleaning process is finished, the operation of the hair clipping unit is stopped, and the hair clipping unit is dried by the operation of a fan or the like via the drying mechanism. However, this method is ineffective in drying out water drops from remote or hard to reach areas of the hair clipping unit. Such conventional drying mechanisms leave no other choice than to wait for the water drops to dry out naturally or to forcibly blow it out with an additional fan. Accordingly, the current state of the art requires longer time for the hair clipping unit to dry out sufficiently.
Further, since some of the cleaning fluid is stuck to the hair clipping unit after the hair clipping unit is cleaned, sebum or contaminants dissolved in the cleaning fluid would still remain on the surface of the hair clipping unit if the hair clipping unit is dried only by blowing wind thereto. Accordingly, there occurs a problem that contaminants remain stuck to the hair clipping unit even after the hair clipping unit is cleaned.